Getting jumped, but not blown, and eventually getting a wet butt

So my bestie friend and I are always coming up with crazy  great ideas of things to keep us and the kids busy. She had the off the wall  great idea that we should all go tubing down the creek.

 By all, I mean her, her husband and her 2 kids ages 3 and 9 and me, my husband and our 3 kids, ages 19, 13, and 8 and we usually have my sons girlfriend and his best friend and his girlfriend with us so that is a total of  a dozen of us. My bestie called around until she found tractor inner tubes, which wasn't as easy as you think considering we live in rural Pa., but with a little persistence she found some for FREE!!!

 So my husband, my bestie and I loaded up into her car and went to retrieve the tubes. We found a large tractor trailer full of huge tires and tubes. He started to dig and move things. It was over 100 degrees outside and he was sweating like crazy. We made the decision to run home and grab our son and his friend. They climbed into the trailer and in no time were completely as black as midnight from the grease.

 We finally managed to wrestle 12 tubes from the trailer and we all felt victory. we began loading them into my bestie's jeep and realized there were no valve cores in any of them. So no tubing that day because everything was closed and there was no place to buy any. The reason the guy had said we could have the tubes for free was because we would have to go back to him to buy the cores. LOL! So almost $30 later we had cores. My husband put them in and began to blow up the tubes. My husband's air compressor kept kicking off every 2 minutes but he managed to get them blown up. All but 3 leaked. UGHHHH!!!! So off to Walmart to buy patches. He patched the tubes and blew them all up again to make sure they were not leaking. Success!!!!! So we planned on the spur of the moment decided to try our hand at this tubing thing. We packed all of the deflated tubes into the vehicles and 2 little kids and my son and his girlfriend and off we went. We got to the creek and started to use a car pump to inflate the tubes. It took half an hour to inflate one and we needed 6. UGHHHH!!! So once again we used our brilliant thinking caps to figure out what we could do. We decided to go to sheetz and use the machine to blow up the biggest of the tubes. We loaded them into the car and my bestie and me went to sheetz. Once we got there we waited in line for the air pump. The guy in front of us was taking forever. We finally got up to the pump and we raised the air pressure as high as it would go and the tube still wasn't filling. So I checked and there was no air coming out. The darn thing was broken and we couldn't get the tubes blown up.

 By now we had been trying for hours to go tubing and it was almost dark. We decided to just forget it. I tried texting my son's girlfriend's phone and got a wrong number. UGHHH!!!! We returned to the creek and my husband had 3 of the tubes blown up and they were waiting for us. By now it was dark. We decided to let the kids just paddle around in the creek. My son and his girlfriend took the kids into the creek. It was dark so we pulled the vehicles up and shined the lights on the creek. Now don't worry the creek is not deep. The spot we were at was not past my son's knees. My husband left our Jeep running, but my bestie turned hers off and left her lights on. Now I know that by now many of you who know me know what I am going to say. You are all right, she went to turn her Jeep on and we heard that famous, click, click, click. Luckily my husband had jumper cables in our Jeep so he jumped us. Home we went. We didn't get the tubes blown up, but we did get the Jeep jumped. The day was not a total loss. The kids did get to paddle around. We also learned a very valuable lesson, blow the tubes up before we leave! We had our light bulb moment. So a few days later we decided to try again. This time it was my bestie and her 2 kiddos and my husband and I and our son and his friend. We blew up the tubes and jammed them into every available opening and on the roof. We used lots of rope and tied everything down. We got to the creek and unloaded everything. We drove one vehicle to the ending point and on the way there I see something fly past my window. My bestie had left her brand new pack of cigs on the hood and it had gone flying past the window. So on the way back from dropping the vehicle off we had a scavenger hunt for cigs. My husband walked along the road and we finally found them. Whewww!!!!! We put the tubes into the water and everyone climbed on. We had left all of the rope in the other vehicle so had to resort to a bungee strap to tie the littlest one to his mom.  As many of my friends and readers know I was hit by a truck and have a bad knee so sometimes things like this are a challenge for me, but i was determined after all we had been through to get my butt wet. My husband rolled my tube down to the creek and then came back up the hill to help me walk down. I got to the creek and went to sit in my tube and fell right through the hole and landed plop right in the creek. I wasn't hurt, but I finally had gotten my butt wet. So we decided that the best way to handle it was for me to sit on one side and dangle my legs in the center. It worked. We leisurely floated down the creek, my butt sometimes scrapping on the rocks. I even got stuck on a rock and my hubby, who can't swim had to come to my rescue. We had so much fun. When it came time to get out of the creek we almost floated by our landing. Our son's had to swim out and drag us in. Everyone managed to get up the bank and we deflated the tubes, loaded them up and started on our way home. My husband and I had taken the roof off of Jeep so we could squeeze the tubes in. We were soaking wet and the sun was now down. We froze all the way home.

Once home I put on a sweat shirt and pulled the blanket of me and stayed covered up all night  and it took forever to get warm. We are thinking about doing this again this weekend. Because we are crazy so full of adventure!

Been a long time

It has been a very long time since I have posted anything. I no longer have Internet at my home and have to borrow from my neighbor and it is a very unreliable signal. I have to have my computer way up on a few boxes to get a signal and it makes it almost impossible to type anything so I end up on Facebook using just my external mouse or watching Netflix. Right now I am at my Mom's using her Internet so i decided to get everyone up to date. Things have been very tough for us lately with my husband losing his job. He went out to look for a new one right away, but things are very tough around here. We have lost many factories and being in a rural area and not having  the blocks and blocks of fast food restaurants and such factory work is really all there is. We ended up having to file for welfare cash assistance. We are a family of 5 and receive only $589 a month. Crazy! My husband was informed that he would have to go on job search for 30 hours a week and he was fine with that. He wanted a job right away. He started to go and they informed him he would be taking GED classes for 6 months before they would let him look for a job. He informed them that we could not live for 6 months on the amount of money they were providing us with. He continued to look on his own. He then found out that on Fridays they didn't go to class or look for work, but watched rented movies. Yup, that is where are tax dollars go. He also felt very uncomfortable with the people he was with. They were drug dealers and criminals. The great news is that he found a new job which he start today. It is kinda far to drive, but he is so happy to be working again.
On another good note our son graduated from both Sun Vo-Tech school and High School. He suffers from a learning disability and he did very good. There were 178 graduating students and he was 101. Not bad. we had a party for him and our youngest daughters 8th birthday. I will post pictures later. Things seem to be looking up. It will take us awhile to get back on our feet, but our son will also be starting work in a week and will be able to help with some bills, so we will survive.

*sigh* tired

I am so very tired tonight. DH and I have spent the last 2 days being very busy. Aside from our normal run the kids here, pick them up there, make them do their chores, cook supper, life kinda stuff we have been running during the day to try and find DH a job. So crazy. Why is it so hard? The bad thing is that my husband's work record is not the best. He has had a lot of jobs and has been fired from a few. In our younger years he would get bored and call off a lot, leave early, be late, just didn't really care. He always seemed to have a hard time settling in. I understood it better later, after we had 3 kids, all who have ADD, all who have some kind of learning disability and the Neuro Dr. told me that when yo have 3 kids with ADD, it comes from somewhere. I don't have it. I always did well in school and I love to read, do it almost every night. Things come pretty easy to me. Neither my DH or I graduated from high school, but I later went on to get my GED, just because. My DH has tried prob 10 times to pass that test and has failed 10 times, even after weeks and sometimes months worth of classes. He just can't do it.The first time they tested him they told him that he read on a 5th grade level. He quit school in the 10th grade. He had gone to a school run by his church and they worked in work books at their own pace and they were just moved to the next grade automatically. He couldn't spell and still can't very well, but his reading has greatly improved. They told him just to read. Read whatever yo want, a car magazine a newspaper, just read and you will get better at it. The last time he took the test he read at almost 12th grade. After my accident, and after he was done care giving for me, he went back to work. Took him awhile to find a job because he had a year gap in employment. He found a seasonal job and then the job he was let go from. He was happy there. He liked the company and he didn't mind the work. He had matured a lot. I think the accident did that for him. He always relied on me to be the bread winner, and that was OK. I LOVED my job and didn't mind working long hours and double shifts. He was great with the kids, so he stayed home and raised them and I worked. After the accident and me being told I couldn't work he found a job and took pride in the fact that he was supporting us. He never complained. he once told me he liked the fact that he knew I wold be at home waiting for him when he came back. When I worked I was gone a lot working. Things were tough for us. I won't lie, money always was and probably always will be an issue for us. However we are both firm believers that money is not happiness. As long as our basics were met we were happy. We love our kids and they are all healthy, we love each other and had been through some very hard times together, but we were happy. Things started to slip though. When you have no savings and live pay check to pay check the way we do, one bad thing can cause an avalanche. That is what happened to us. It starts slow, very slow, just a trickle really. We discovered we had a bad roof. We had no money to get it fixed, so we tried patching it. Our only car broke down. We had no money to get it fixed so we begged other people to get him to work. The plumbing in the house is bad and every time you turn around DH was trying to repair another leaking pipe. We got behind on our bills. Now when I say bills, I don't mean credit card bills, or expensive cell phones are anything like that. I mean the basics, and by the basics I don't mean satellite TV, or the Internet, or long distance phone. I mean rent, electric, and basic telephone and a cheap car payment. That is it, all we had, no TV, none, we had a prepaid cell, no money, no phone, no Internet did without it and soon will be doing without it again, and we only had 1 car. People would say, cut back. On what, breathing? We saved money to get the car fixed, but we needed more money, so we had to take out the car loan. The patched roof got worse, so we patched it again, and so on and so on............................... We just never seemed to be able to get ahead. Just couldn't get away fast enough, something was and is always nipping at our heels, screaming for us to pay attention to it. I wonder sometimes if it isn't punishment? I married young, had a baby young and was lucky enough to marry the love of my life. maybe if you get lucky enough to find "the one" right away then you get punished for it. Maybe you are allowed only so much happiness. You get either money or fame or great looks, or a huge talent, like an artist or musician or you get the love of your life, your perfect other half and because you got the one great thing, the rest suffers. I know life is full of ups and downs, but I just really wish my up would get here. *sigh* I know I complain way too much. I bet everyone must think I am a sour, sad person. Not really true, maybe I only feel the need to write when I am sour and sad. Think I will stop the pity party train and be happy in the now and worry about the tomorrow, tomorrow. Live one day at a time is the only way I can cope right now. I am trying to look at the good things that are in the future. Someone once told me that if you and your spouse quit school the chances are your kids won't finish either. That has always weighed on me. Well, I am proud to announce that in about a month my DS will graduate from high school. I could not be happier and I could not be more proud of him. One down, 2 to go. They will finish even if I have to drive them and sit in class with them, they will finish. I refuse to let my mistakes be revisited on my children.

Scared

Finally heard from the unemployment office about the decision to give Bill unemployment. He was denied. When I read that letter I felt like crying, throwing up, screaming, but mostly I just wanted to float away. I want to go to a place where I don't have to deal with any of this. I am so scared. What are we going to do? I mean, it isn't like we were in the best situation to begin with. We have gone from having some money coming in every month to none, none! How do you live without money? We had a few hundred dollars left from our income tax, but we had to use most of it to pay an outstanding electric bill. The roof leaks so bad that I am afraid one of these days it will just fall in or a strong wind will come and it will just tear right off. We once again are behind on our rent. We didn't pay last months and this months is past due. We are 3 months behind on our vehicle payment. Without a car how can he find a job, how can I see all of these Dr.'s I am suppose to see. I am just so tired of dealing with all of it. It always seems like we get out of one mess only to find ourselves in another. I sit here wondering why I wasted so much energy and money 4 months ago to keep us from being evicted when we will once again face the same thing. Why I paid almost $2,000 to keep our lights on last month, only to get them shut off now that we can't pay. Why keep fighting? Why?! I just want to curl up into a ball and give up. wouldn't that be so much easier? I think again about what my life would be like right now if I had never been hurt. I think about whether I could try and find a job. Who would take me? I am a mess. Who would be willing to work around all of my problems? If the job exists I would do it. I feel like this is all my fault. My guilt overwhelms me. I am surely riding the pity train. I wish I had a magic pill that would take me back to that fateful day. The day it all changed. How I wish I could make things different. I am so scared and don't know what to do or how to fix it. I can only see things getting worse from here. It is like I am walking down a long tunnel and there is no light at the other end. I have always tried to be greatful for what  have. When DH worked I was glad for his job even though it wasn't much. As long as most of the bill were paid I could be happy in the knowledge that somehow things would work out. This cloud has no silver lining. It is cold, wet and very dark here and I don't see any way out.

Had a Dr.'s appt today.

I went and saw my Dr today and had several things I wanted to talk about. One of them was this weird mole I have on my face. It showed up a few months ago and has gotten bigger. She looked at it and doesn't think it looks bad, but wants me to see a dermatologist. I'm not worried, just want to be careful. I also wanted to talk about my knee and back pain, which has increased again. It seems to around this time of the year. I think it may be because of the change in the weather and the fact that when it starts to get nice I want to be out more and am walking around more. I especially like to yard sale, but my pain keeps me from being able to do a lot of it. She wants me to try a new medicine, it is an anti inflammatory, because I asked her for no narcotics. She also wants me to go to a pain clinic and try injections in my back. I am a little unsure about this, but the pain in my back is sometimes unbearable. She also wants me to try taking physical therapy, just to see if they can help lessen the pain. I will try anything at this point. She read my last MRI and the tried to explain to me that this is a life time long chronic condition. I think maybe she thought I wasn't aware of this. I am, and have accepted it, but really want to try and lessen my pain so I can try and enjoy my life a little more. One other thing I am looking in to is getting the lap band procedure done to help me with my weight. I have always been heavy and accepted that I would never be a super model and that was fine. My husband loves me just as I am and that was all I needed. The reason I am looking into it now is because less weight means less strain on my joints. That all equals decreased pain. I am very unsure about it. My sister has had gastric by pass and has had a rough time of it. I will be seeing and talking to someone about this and then make an informed decision. I also need to find a psychologist that will accept the Access card so I can begin to deal with my PTSD. I am no longer taking the anti-depressants because they just didn't seem to help. The sunshine seems to do much more for me.  Hope everyone has a great weekend and that it is sunny! LOL

What am I, made of money?

I know many people have felt this way. It just seems that you need money the most when you have the least amount of it, or you are trying to stretch what little you have. My DH has recently lost his job and has not received his first unemployment check yet or even for that matter his paperwork saying he will be getting unemployment. You see he was fired because he got sick. I think I blogged about this in an earlier post. Well, anyway the 2 oldest kids come to us today and start reminding us about all the money they need by the end of the week. The oldest our DS will be getting a job cleaning the schools for the summer after he graduates. He needs 2 $10 money orders so they can run the back ground checks on him. He also needed last week $40 for his prom tickets and we still have to pay $100 for his tux. Our oldest DD needs $13 to go on a filed trip. They also both informed me that they need packed lunches. I know this seems trivial, but they both get free lunch at school and I don't generally keep a lot of that kind of stuff laying around so I will have to go and buy stuff for them to eat. What made me so upset about all of this is our DS, who is 19 is always lately not following the house rules. You see he got this new girlfriend and it really is the first one he has been totally gaga over. He stays out past curfew and comes and goes as he please without telling us. I hate that. Ok, so I am over protective and I know many will say, hey, he is 19 after all. Well, he is, but he isn't. He's more like 14, when it comes to some things. He is in a special class at school and he has ADD and a learning disability. He is a good kid, just not thinking things through right now. I got off track a little, the point is when i call him on these things he tells me, I am a grown up! Yeah, right, ok. So after he informed me of this money I said, hey where is that $5 you got for Easter? He quietly says, spent it. On what, I say? On sodas. ON SODAS! ( I thought this, but said this) On sodas? You have soda here, at the house. Yeah, I know. Let me explain that he bought the sodas at the campground about a half mile from our house. He left our house and rode his bike there, just to spend $5 on sodas. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, I got mad. I asked him who was suppose to pay the $20 HE needed for the back ground check for HIS job. He just looks at me. I hate when he does that. I said, it isn't my job, or your dad's. It is YOUR job. You should have saved that $5 and used it to put towards this money you knew you had to have. Well, he says, I just thought you would pay for it. I then threw back at him, but you are a GROWN UP, and grown ups pay their own way. I asked him what he would do if we didn't pay it, he just shrugged his shoulders and said, then I won't work. I thought to myself, like hell! The I asked him if I should make him chose between his tux and the job, he just looked at me and then shrugged his shoulders, UGHHHHHH!!!!! Where did I go wrong? I mean it isn't like my kids have gotten everything they have wanted. The exact opposite, so where did he get this attitude that he deserves for us to pay for everything. I felt bad then because DD was sitting on the couch counting her change and offered to give it to us towards her school trip. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! She has her moments. LOL I explained to her that her and DS are different. He is suppose to be a grown up and learn to handle things and start to pay his own way in life and she is 13 and still dependant upon us.
This all brings me to another problem. do we make him pay to live here after he graduates. I want to say yes, so he learns responsibility and about bills. I think when I say this to others they think I am horrible. I by no means want to take his entire pay. I also don't want to see a whole paycheck spent on SODA! When I was a kid, around 15 and worked, my Mom sorta stopped buying me clothes and stopped paying for my haircuts and I used my own money for going with friends and the such. I moved out when I was 17 and married so after that I was on my own. I don't know how it would have worked if I had stayed, but I assume she would have made me pay. What do you think?

Where have I been

Well first of all this month is Autism awareness so I will be writing in blue in honor of all of them, but especially my nephew Quinlan. We all love you Quin and miss you!
Well, I have been gone for quite awhile. I have meant to blog, have thought about it, but just somehow didn't get around to it. I wondered if people really care about what goes on in my life. Plus it seems that I only write about bad stuff. I don't mean to, it just happens. Well, I have a lot to write about and yes some will be bad.
Let me start by saying that I am very glad spring is on the way. I have had enough of winter. I hate the cold and I hate the snow. With my bad leg the snow and ice make it hard for me to get around and I end up in the house a lot. This is a bad thing because I keep myself isolated enough as is. I think it must be part of my depression and PTSD. I tend to stay home and don't like to go out. I do have a few places I like to go. I love to go for lunch with my husband and my friends and I love to go to thrift stores. I am happy that it will soon be yard sale weather. I love to yard sale, but it is made difficult by  my inability to walk very far or for too long. So I have modified my yard sale technique by driving to the sales instead of doing a lot of walking. my husband is the best in that if we go to a sale we can't drive around to he will push me in a my wheelchair. He is a doll and has been so wonderful through everything. I hate this spring though too. It has been way too rainy for my taste. I understand we need rain for the new flowers and new leaves and the green, green grass, but the mud, and the constant cloudy days, just too depressing. I want sun! I am dying to sit outside and feel the warmth on my face. To put shorts on and feel the sun shining on skin too long covered to keep warm. I want to wiggle my toes in the green, green grass and I want to watch my husband and kids plant my garden and watch things get ripe and eat them. LOL I am ready for picnic and rides in our Jeep with the top off. I am ready for summer! I am also tired of this damn leaky roof. It has gotten to the point that when it rains our power keeps going out. I know the water must be getting to the electrical, we just don't know what to do about it. My husband has been constantly working on the many problems this house seems to constantly have. It seems like you fix one thing and something else breaks. we replaced our water heater and now he has to replace the heating elements because they have burned out already. Our wonderful DS was trying to be helpful and get rid of a pot of soup by flushing it down the toilet and accidentally flushed a large bone and it lodged in the toilet and they can't get it out so we had to replace it. Now that potty doesn't want to work right either. I try to chastise myself and say you have a roof over your head and so many don't. Stop feeling sorry for your self  and just suck it up, do the best you can and live life to the fullest.  I swear I try, I try every day. I convince myself that everything is fine, that I should be glad and happy for what I have. I am happy. I have 3 great and healthy kids. I have a husband who loves me and dotes on me and would do anything for me. Who needs heat or a non-leaky roof or a potty that works of a stove that has all it's burners or a beautiful, perfect house. I have a perfect family and that is what matters. Then something bad will happen to get me down again. Bill got sick. Had a virus. Got it from the kiddos. He was coughing and not sleeping. He went to the Dr.'s and they gave him a script for cough medicine. Told him not to drive while taking it and to stay home for a few days and rest. well, he didn't like it, but knew it was for the best and was worried about not working and not getting paid. I told him we would be ok. He took 4 days off. Called his employer and explained all of this, to the lovely answering machine you get to talk to. Told them if they had any questions to call him. He went into work on Friday and picked up his check. Took the weekend off as usual and went back to work on Monday at 5:30 am. They didn't even let him past the guard shack. they stripped him of his time card and told him he was fired. He asked why and they told him they didn't know. They called on of the supervisors and he told Bill that all he knows is that he was told Bill missed too many days, Bill said I called and handed in a Dr.'s excuse. He said call in later and talk with someone else. Well, he has spent all last week calling and never got a call back. He went there and was told they were gone for the day. So unprofessional! He will go tomorrow and wait there until someone speaks to him. He deserves after 3 and half years a reasonable explanation. So a bad situation has gotten even worse. Since he is the only one that made any money we have no idea what will happen now. I have filed for social Security, been denied, appealed, been denied, filed and been denied and am now awaiting yet another court hearing. I have been told by many that you have to file about 3 times before you get approved. it takes about a year and a half each time you file. I have been waiting about 3 years so far. I will prob have to wait about another 2 before I finally get approved. I had a lawyer the first time, and will get one this time as well. I am still looking for one.
On some good notes our DS will graduate from high school in a few weeks. I am so excited. We ordered his tuxedo for the Sr. prom and he has a new girlfriend, (that he really, really loves) that he will be taking. We are hoping to have a little get together to celebrate his graduation, not sure when or where, but I want to do something nice for him. I have worked on a few projects, but seem to have trouble finishing anything. I have 2 projects for my Mom that I need to get done and one for my brother and sister in law that I did finish. Here is a picture of that.

Not great pictures, but the best I could get at the time. I have been working on 2 projects for my Mom that I should have had done awhile ago. I will motivate my self to get them done. I do have a few other things i finished for my daughter's girl scout egg hunt. some cute little bunny barrettes. Here are a few pictures of those.

These were fun to make! I need to make a few more. These will be different though. maybe if the sun stays out today and I feel a little better I will try and work on some. I want to make some of these bunny ones for my niece's for Easter and I am running out of time. I also want to make 4 matching dresses for my girls and my nieces. I have some really pretty fabric I bought at a thrift store and I am pretty sure I will have enough for 4 dresses. well, really gotta go, next time I promise I will have more to show and will try and tell a funny story. I have a million, or so I am told! LOL 

Been away awhile

I know I have been away awhile, but I haven't forgotten. Just been in a weird rut lately. I have a ton of projects in the works to show all of you, but no pictures as of yet. I will get around to it here as soon as I can. I did catch some cute photos this past weekend and here they are.

Everyone usually falls asleep long before I do and it seems like they just pass out like flies around me. I just couldn't resist they were so cute!                                                                                                                 



Katey's dress

Here are some pics of Katey and her new dress. These pictures were taken by my oldest daughter Holly.









   

Dress was made from a tutorial found here. http://www.gingerhendrix.com/wiener_dog_tricks/patternless-baby-dress-tutorial.html

Lost in my own world

So I've been a little lost in my own world for a couple of days. Remember I warned you in the beginning that I wouldn't promise to write every day or even every week I get side tracked by life and projects. Like I stayed up ALL night last night a sewed Katey a new dress. No pics yet, but will try and get some when she comes home from school. She loves when I make her things. First thing out of her mouth this morning, Did you finish my dress. Yup, sure did and a matching hair flower too. I have also been working on a secret jewelry project. Can't tell you about it yet. I have also been crocheting a baby cocoon. Kinda like a blanket that is already wrapped. I  think you have figured out that I have a problem staying on task. I like to start lots of things. I think it is because I get these ideas for items and I just run with them. I mean I had no intention on making Katey a dress last night. I was online and looking for something else and this tutorial popped up for an easy dress. I just HAD to make one for Katey. So............ I did. That is how it happens. I really need to finish a few of the other items I have already going and that is for sure on my list of things to get done.
Well, on the life note, we lost a bunch of stuff in a house flood. Wanna hear the Reichard curse strikes again funniness of it all, the stuff wasn't even in our house. See a few months ago we were suppose to move. We got involved with the program that was intended to help people get back on their feet. Goodness knows we have needed that since my accident, anyway one of the things they do is pay your rent for a year. Since our house is like falling down around my head we thought this was a GREAT idea. We began to look for a place to move. Sounds simple, right? NOT! They give you income guidelines and to us they seemed big, but then again we have been living in the same mobile home for 15 years. We had no idea how much it would cost to rent a house. We looked and looked and looked. We spent every spare minute to searching the newspaper, the internet, driving around and looking at houses. We either found ones we LOVED and couldn't afford or ones we hated and would never work for us. I really wanted either a one story house, or one with a potty downstairs because of my bad leg. I was afraid I would have one of my bad leg days and not be able to get up the stairs and where would I potty, or I would have a bout of bad depression and decide that I just couldn't take the risk and would stay in bed and not get out. The other problem was finding someone who would let us have the "boys" (dogs). There was no way I was giving them up. Finally after 2 months of long, hard looking we settled on a place. Not ideal. It was a second floor apartment, but I could have the boys.That was very important to me. It had 3 huge bedrooms, a nice living room , a small kitchen, but we could work around that. The guy was very, very nice and said I could put the boys out front to potty, so I didn't have to walk down the outside stairs. We told the guy we would take it and we were so excited to be able to have our search over and finally move. This all happened on a Friday. That Saturday we received a notice that we were not eligible for the program. You see in order to be part of the program we had to meet certain guidelines.
1. Be homeless or about to be homeless.
This was going to happen because C&Y told us to allow our mobile home park to evict us. We later had to pay almost $3,000 out of our income tax to be able to stay since we had no where to go. Came right down to the day before they were going to lock us out. C&Y are supposedly here to help us because our house is in such bad shape, but if anything they have made things worse. $1,100 of that money was in late charges and court costs we would have never gotten if we had paid the rent.
2. Be eligible for section 8 (HUD) housing.
Filled out the application 2 months prior to finding the apartment.
3. both have jobs or enroll in program to help us find jobs.
In Bill's case he is working and they  couldn't hope to find him a higher paying job. For me they were going to have me evaluated by OVR. Plus I had already filled for Social Security, again.
4. Be enrolled in a program to improve our credit.
We were happy to do that since we have so much debt from my accident.
All of these things had to be met to be in the program, if just one thing fell out of place then we would not be eligible. Well, after more than 2 months we were sent a letter stating we were not eligible to receive section 8 housing. You see when I was 18 and pregnant with my now 19 year old boy we lived in low income housing. We lived there about 2 years give or take a few months. They did inspections and we failed one of them. I am a terrible house keeper. I admit it. I can always find something better to do than clean. I also have a very bad habit of dragging things out to look for something and then getting tired and not putting everything i dug out away right away. That was one of those times. I had taken everything out of our little storage area under the stairs and dug through everything and then it got late and I figured I could put it away later. Well little did I know the following day they came to inspect and the house was a mess. We got evicted. That would be about 18 years ago. Because of a mistake I made when I was 18or 19 we are black balled from every federally run program that has to do with housing. Now, if we would have run out without paying the rent we could have paid the back rent and everything would have been fine. The fact that I am a messy housekeeper obviously is unforgivable.  So no move. We had packed up our entire home when we first started looking 2 months previous. We each had 4 sets of clothes, were eating off of paper plates and plastic silver ware and put all of our possessions in storage. Some was in our personal little shed, some in a rental shed we share with my parents and the new(really used, but new to us) furniture for the move and the rest of our items were stored in the heated basement of Bill's Mom's house. We put sensitive items down there. Video games, the kids' Wii my precious sewing machine my parents gave to me, pictures, lots of them, books, VCR tapes, DVDs, the new beds and mattresses, a TV and many other items. Well, here is where the curse part comes in, a pipe in the ceiling/floor or his Mom's house burst right over our stuff. I mean our stuff was in one little part of the basement and there are pipes all over down there and one broke, right over our stuff. Come on. Well, anyone who knows us knows this is how things work for us. So we went and scoured through the stuff and brought home what we thought we could save and bagged the rest up for garbage. My sewing machine, after 3 days of drying and lots of oiling seems to have survived. The kids' Wii we still aren't sure about. It turns on, but the remotes don't seem to be working. The pictures, lost some, many others are spread through the house drying. My son's Nintendo 64 we are still unsure about. The unit turns on, but again the remotes don't seem to be working. Well, nothing to do, but move onward and upward. Oh, forgot the good part, all those clothes, the ones we didn't keep at the house, the ones we put in storage so I would have them ready to go when we move, yup you guessed it, in the basement. 14 bags of clothes. My washer and dryer has been running nonstop for 3 days now and I am not sure I have even made a dent. LOL! Well, I wanted to sort through them again, so now is the time. What I don't want I will donate. So this is what I have been up to and why I haven't written in awhile. I will try and get pics of Katey in her new dress. But, today is Girl scouts and tomorrow Boy scouts. 2 more busy days. Hope to see you all soon!

Can't believe what time it is!

Wow! Have you ever started working on something and then look at your watch and realize HOURS have gone by without you even noticing it? Well, it happened to me tonight. I always was and probably always will be a late owl. I love the quietness and knowing my family is all snug and tucked into bed. It is like I am watching over them as they sleep just in case there really are monster that come out in the middle of the night. Well, I was up and working on  my computer as usual and I got this bright idea to tweak my blogs a little. I just want them to look nice and be easy for people to view, move around in and to find the other places I am at. You know, my Facebook page, my other blog. My Mom doesn't get this whole blogging thing. She asked me the other day why would you want someone reading your diary? I tried explaining it to her, but I think after some soul searching I have found out MY reason why....... to know I am not alone. I suffer from depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and both of those things tend to make you draw into yourself. This is one way for me to be out in the open without having to worry about not wanting to leave my house. Anyway, I got off track, see how that happens? LOL So I am tweaking my blogs and my alarm on my phone goes off. It is 4am and time for my hubby to get up for work. He is the polar opposite of me. He like getting up early for work. Don't ask me why. He is just weird. Anyway, I am too involved in what I am doing and covered with yarn, scissors, a computer and a cat, also just to dang lazy, to get up and shut the phone off. It rings several more times. Finally I wonder to myself, why hasn't he gotten up? I go back and yup, still sound asleep. I look at his alarm clock, and I bet a bunch of you already know what I am going to say, it is an hour slow. The computer changed itself, the phones changed themselves, but those dang, lazy alarm clocks never change themselves.I wake him up and he runs around getting dressed so he can leave. He gives me a kiss and out the door he goes, after asking me, Aren't you EVER going to bed? I assure him I will go, in a minute. Aren't those famous last words. So here I sit at 6:11 am, not having gone to bed yet. I will wait now and get the kids up in a little while to get ready for school and then I will take the dogs and we will sleep. While everyone else is starting their day, I will end mine. When everyone else is winding down, I am just getting going. My strange sleeping habits have bothered my Mother for years. I always told her, someone had to work the night shift. Some of us are just born for it. I can stay up for a long time. A lot longer than most. I think it came from all the years I spent working double shifts when I was a nurse's aide. I just heard my first bird singing. Sun will be up in a little while. Guess I will finish up here and watch a TV show on Netflix before I have to get the kiddos up. Good night all, or good morning, which ever you prefer. :)

It's 3 am

It's 3 am and all is quiet and good in the Reichard house. The kids are all sleeping, including the fur kids, except the cat, she is prowling. The drip, drip dripping has finally stopped. Thank goodness. My eye lids are getting heavy and sleep is calling me. I am just sitting here reflecting on the day. It was a good one. I spent time with my Mom, I got a great surprise from a good friend, I cried happy tears, the kids kept the fighting down to a minimum, I played a game with a great friend and had some good conversations and the roof lasted through yet another rain storm. I am glad for the roof, I have left, over my head and I am grateful for my family and friends. I am especially grateful because those of you who know anything about PTSD, feeling worthless and invisible is always a problem, but today I feel like I am wearing bright pink and I am being seen. What a great feeling! To be seen. To KNOW you are loved and wanted. To feel needed. Everyone needs that. I know I have said it before, but Thank You Melissa for helping me to be seen.

One kind act changes lives

I have been rambling on for days about my friend Melissa's give away on her blog. I was super excited to be asked to donate something and participate. I went outside my comfort box and made a beautiful bracelet and earring set in bright cheerful yellow and green spring colors. I was so happy to hand it over to her today and overwhelmed with anticipation to follow the give away. But Melissa had an even bigger surprise. She fibbed a little and snuck around a little and decided to use what had happened to me years ago to help my family. I just can't stop crying over my feelings of surprise and gratitude that some one would do something so nice for me. Thank you Melissa and please know that your act of kindess means everything to us! Go and visit her blog at http://www.lifewithlissy.com/ and tell her she is AWEOME!

Water heater update

Well my wonderful husband managed after 4 days to get the water heater installed and to get all of the pipes to stop leaking. After he was all done I insisted he be the first to get a nice hot shower. Well he wasted most of the hot water trying to get the air out of the lines and his shower turned cold before he was done. Some reward. LOL! I am very proud of him though for sticking with it and getting it done. As I sit her now listening to it rain on the inside of the house, I am reminded that he still has a lot of things that need fixed. The roof is next and for a man who doesn't like heights to be up on a rotten roof he must really love us. I know he will probably never read this, but if he does, Thank you Bill for all you do. I know you are tired from getting up early and working all day and then you are lucky enough to come home to a wife who suffers from depression and PTSD and isn't always the most pleasant person to be around, but just know I love you and thank you for putting up with me.

4 days, 6 trips

It has been a long 4 days here at the Reichard castle. We had to replace our water heater. We were not looking forward to it because we don't plan on being in this mobile home any longer than we have to be and the thought of putting money into a house we aren't staying in just burns me. We bought the water heater and my DH goes about installing it. Well the first day, Sunday he goes to the local hardware store and buys all of the necessary fittings and pipe. he returns home and gets to work only to discover he forgot to buy a piece. Well we live in rural Pa and everything closes around her very early on a Sunday. All of the stores that would carry this item are closed. So day 1 down the drain. Day 2 dawns with about 8 inches of fresh fallen snow. It is Monday and a normal work day for my DH but because of the snow and the fact that the old water heater had fallen through the rotten floor he calls off to work on the Water heater. he goes and buys the missing part assuming that once that is on all will be good and I will be taking a hot shower in under an hour. He installs the piece and can not get the fittings to stop leaking. He takes them back and trades them. That is trip 3 to the hardware store. He comes home and installs the new parts. He gets the water heater to stop leaking in that spot, only for it to begin leaking in another spot. Trip 4 to hardware store to buy plumbers tape and cement. After much work he finally gets all of the pieces to stop leaking. The better part of a day is gone and still no shower. He turns the water on and there is no pressure plus he can hear running water. He climbs under the trailer and there is a geyser under there. One of the pipes has burst. The local hardware store is closed so he must drive a half hour away to buy parts. An hour and a half later he is home with yet more parts. This would be trip 5 to the hardware store. He climbs under the trailer and puts the piece on. He comes in the house around 10 pm to tell me it is still leaking and he has had enough for the day. Dawning of day 3. A work day. He comes home early and starts working on the pipes under the trailer right away. First fitting no good, second fitting still leaks. Goes to hardware store for trip 6. He buys another fitting. He comes home and puts that fitting on and finally gets it to stop leaking. It is after 9pm. My DH wakes up at 4am to go to work so by now he is tired, hungry and frustrated. He comes in and slams his pliers on the table and states he has had enough. The pipes have started leaking in yet another spot. So begins day 4. He is now as I type under the trailer in the cold, rain and dark trying to fix the pipes. He HATES plumbing. He always has, but he sure does after all of this. I am still hoping for that hot shower. The kids have been bathing at my Mother's thank goodness. I hope today ends the saga of the water heater.

Not enough hours

We had so much to do this weekend

and there just wasn't enough hours in the day. My youngest DD had a Girl Scout event to attend, so we started our weekend with that. It was at the mall and they walked from one table to the next doing crafts.  Our oldest DD went as well. When we were finished there we went and got some lunch and then went to the thrift store right next door. I had asked for some soda tabs on Freecycle for a craft project I am doing and we needed to run and get them. After that we came home in the hopes that my DH and DS could get on our roof to do some repairs. We live in a mobile home that is in very bad shape.  Due to some unfortunate events that have happened in the last couple of years we could not afford to keep up the repairs on our home nor could we afford to move into another home or a rental house.  We have gotten some materials from Freecycle that has enabled us to start doing some repair work on the roof. At the time being we have a 3 foot hole in our roof. We have put metal and plastic over it, but all that has just been temporary fixes. The plastic ripped away during the last storm we had and the metal sheeting didn't work as well as we had hoped. Anyway when we got home our DS had run into town with a friend and was not home and did not return home until it was too late for DH and DS to get on the roof. Of course it started to rain. Isn't that Murphy's law? We have quite a few buckets and bowls catching the rain at the moment. I think we may be just as wet inside the house as it is outside. Well, this project will have to wait unti drier weather. My DH and DS decided that they would begin on the next project needing done. They went and purchased a new hot water heater. I decided I needed a nap. I was just so tired. My DH and DS arrived back home around 9pm. We had planned on going out for a drink with a friend so I got up and decided to get ready. We went out for a few drinks and ended up getting breakfast before returning home. We hadn't been out like this for a very, very long time. It was very relaxing. It was very late when we got home, or early depending on how you think. It was about 3:30am. I went almost right to bed and slept like a log. We woke up this am and ran to get the parts for the water heater we bought yesterday and needed to be put in today. We grabbed something to eat and picked up some more shingles we got off of Freecyle. In case anyone is interested you can find your local Freecycle at http://www.freecycle.org/. After getting home my DS and my DH went to work on the old water heater. It had been leaking and had almost fallen through the floor. Now we have a big hole in the closet floor. My DH is just going to lay a board over the old floor because we do not plan on being here longer than another year and really don't want to put any more money than we have to into the house. I am hoping they will at least get the water heater in before tonight. Must try and find those missing extra hours or learn to slow time. Maybe split ourselves in half. Until any of this is possible we will make the best out of the time we have.

P.S. As I was finishing this up my DH came to inform me he needs another part and all of the stores are closed because it is sunday. No hot water tonight, no water at all. One more project left undone. He will have to get the part after work tomorrow and finish it up then.

She's 13

Today my oldest DD turned 13. How time flies. It is like you blink and they are all grown up. Now I have 2 teenagers. My DS turned 19 last week. I was 18 when he was born.
My husband and I decided to go to McDonald's. Our DD's had been given coupons for there at church. I stopped by the grocery store and bought a cake. My friend and her 2 DS came along. A good time was had. Especially when my friend started shooting spit balls and flinging icing at my husband because he had fallen asleep. So see we really never do grow up!

A bead kind of day

Woke up this morning and was suppose to help my sons friend Andrew find a job. He had other things to do so I decided to call a friend, go for lunch and stop by my local bead store called Ellacinder's. I swear this is one of my most favorite places to go. I love all of the colors and the intoxicating sparkle of the Swarovski crystals twinkling from across he room. The beads seem to talk. They have a language all of their own. You have to listen closely to what they say and if you do they have a lot of stories to tell. The other reason i love it there is because of the 2 wonderful women who work there. They have become such good friends to me. They have listened to my many stories and the ups and downs of my life. They make going in there an experience you will never forget. So friendly and helpful. I went in with the intentions of re-stringing 2 bracelets. One I had made for my friends sister and the other was one my friend had bought that needed to be made bigger. While there some beautiful purple beads called to me. They spoke in a low voice and said that they were meant to be mine. I picked up the cup they were resting in and picked a few up and let them rest in my hand. Yes, they would be mine, but i didn't want them to be lonely and I knew that gemstones loved the company of Swarovski crystals. They also liked to hang around with silver spacer beads. These beautiful stones would make a statement as they hung around my wrist. I went and got their friends and put the cups on the table and told them in a soft voice to be patient that they would all be united soon. I restrung the 2 bracelets and then set forth making my purple bracelet. I LOVE purple! I also then turned my attention to some other beads that were screaming at me. I bought the ones I could and brought them home. I could only rescue a few, the others will have to wait until I can return. I promised them all that I would try and return as soon as I could. I know that there will be others who will come that can hear their voices and they too will rescue what they can. Now to unite these beads together so I can send them all to a new home.

Bad day

Feeling very agitated today. Not sure why, but I just am. It could be that I have stopped taking my "happy pills" They have side effects that my husband doesn't like and then he is unhappy. So I guess I just feel that I have to pick between 2 lesser evils. The problem is to make him happy one way means making everyone unhappy in a other way. I know I am being mean, I know I am being a nag, but I seem unable to stop. I get unhappy about one thing and then it is a snowball effect. The thing is I don't even know for sure what it was or is that is making me so unhappy. I know I am unhappy and frustrated with myself a lot. My house is too small and in such bad shape and I try to see the bright side of things and be grateful for what I have and know others are in worse shape than I am, but I just get angry. I hate living like this and I swear if one more person tells me to look at the bright side and make due with what I have I will scream. Or if i hear someone say give up one of your luxuries. Let's see, is heat a luxury, how about electricity, maybe food, that for sure is a luxury. Car insurance, that is definitly a waste of money. Who needs it. Rent, who likes paying that.The health insurance my husband pays through work could go. We don't really need to go to the dr.'s. Wait, I got it, the gasoline my husband uses to go to work. We do eat out more than we should and we rent movies. I have internet and we each have a $30 a  month prepaid cell phone. I guess these are all luxuries. We wouldn't die without them.  I make due every day. I shop at the thrift stores, and yard sales. we don't have cable or satelite. I have internet an watch TV online. My husband does buy me craft supplies to try and keep me busy. I try and see the bright side all the time. What I find hard is that nothing seems to change or get brighter. I don't even want to try anymore. I just want to live in my own little bubble and forget the rest of the world even exists. I think if I can keep the outside world at bay at least things won't get any worse. I can handle the now, it is the tomorrow that scares me. I wonder if it is a PTSD thing or if I just really am a miserable, ungrateful person who wants to be handed everything in life. Maybe I really am just lazy and hopeless. I hope tomorrow is a better day. Gotta get back on track. The pity party is over!

Holly day

Today was Holly day. After Holly returned home from school, Holly her Gram and I headed towards the mall. First we stopped at a thrift store. I love to thrift store shop. You just never know what you are going to find. I was looking for a few specific things, none of which I found however. I did leave with 2 toy horses for Katey and an outfit for her as well. Holly got a pair of pink corduroy pants and I also bought the game Jenga. Then we went to the mall. I decided today to use my wheelchair because my knee and my back have really been acting up lately. I think it must be the weather change. Holly pushed me for the first part of the trip. My Mom needed to get some jewelry cleaned so we did that first. Then we just kinda milled around. We went to Bed, Bath and beyond to look for a candle i had heard about. It burns at a low temp and is then poured onto the skin and becomes massage oil. They didn't have it there. They I asked if we could go to the Avenue. I looked around in there, but didn't find anything. Then we went to FYE and looked at the videos. I bought Delta Farce for Bill. It has Larry the cable guy in it. We left there and decide to go and get supper.  On our way out we had to go through boscov's. They were having a shoe sale and we looked around. Mom and Holly started trying on boots. holly found a few pairs she liked. We finally settled on a pair of boots with about a 2 inch heel and calf high. They are very, very mature looking. She LOVES them. She says they are her sassy boots. She can't wait to wear them to school tomorrow. We went to Hoss's. The food was ok, but I have sure had better. I think next time we should pick a better restaurant. However I was very hungry tonight and ate more than I should have. The last few days though I hadn't been very hungry. I made up for it tonight.We left the restaurant and headed home. Mom dropped us off and the minute the door was open Holly yells, Dad wait until you see my new boots. So much for breaking it to him gently. He thinks the boots are a lot for someone so young. I think we are both having problems seeing her grow up so fast. We decided to play a game of Jenga and then the girls went to bed. Didn't take them long to go to sleep. before they went to bed Holly thanked me for the day. She said she loves hanging out with Her Gram and I. I can honestly say I also had a great time. It was good to have a girls night out. Hope we can do it again soon.

Katey day

My 2 girls had off from school the last 2 days. It was presidents day. My son was suppose to have school, but yesterday it snowed here in Pa. and so my son also was home from school. I decided that today I would make it a Katey day. My Mom had asked me yesterday, Monday, if I would go with her on Wednesday to the mall. I decided that Wednesday will be Holly day. So the plans I had today for Katey day was to take her to get her hair thinned out. She has really long beautiful hair, but it is so thick that it was getting almost impossible to brush it, even with her special brush. I took her to the local Empire beauty school, she has had her hair trimmed about twice a year since she was about 6 months old. recently I took 3 inches off the length. 

Everyone at the beauty school had to come over and see the little girl with the long thick hair. Katey tends to be very quiet when she is surrounded by people she doesn't know. She sure does talk a lot though any other time. She would smile and nod her head when they would ask her something or she would look to me for an answer. She just laid back and was really enjoying the girl washing her hair. They asked if they could give her a 60 second conditioning treatment since her hair is so dry. They also said that it helps to prevent splint ends. I said sure. They put it in plus 2 great big handfuls of conditioner. Then she decided that it would be easier to use a comb to get all of the conditioner deep down in. It took about 20 to 30 minutes for them to brush it all the way through her hair. She just sat back with her eyes closed. She looked so relaxed. After they were done doing all of that and had rinsed her hair they took her back to the chair to start thinning her hair. People were still milling around coming to take a look. It took the hair dresser another 30 to 40 minutes to thin out her hair. She had little hair balls all over the floor. Then she took the time to braid it and put it up in a little bun. She looked so cute. I had in the mean time called Bill to see if he was done working. While I was dialing the phone Katey says don't tell Daddy it's me I want him to be surprised. I asked him if he could meet me at the beauty school and he said yes. When he arrived Katey and the hairdresser thought it would be fun to try and play a trick on Bill by telling him they cut 12 inches off of her hair. He didn't fall for it. He told me later that he knew I would never allow them to cut her hair by that much. What a smarty. We went up and paid and then I gave Katey $2 to go and give the girl who cut her hair. The students don't get paid for their work. They only make money if they get tipped. The whole hair cut and conditioning treatment only cost $11. Not bad for all of that work. We left there and took Katey for Chinese food. Her favorite. Then I wanted to run to the craft store and get some beads and other supplies. While there she got a fuzzy poster to color of a horse. She is crazy for horses. We left there and headed for home. Bill still had to run Kyle and a few others to Boy Scouts. She fell asleep for a little in the Jeep, and was a little crabby when she got home. She decided to work on her poster for a little and was very quietly coloring it. Two of the markers broke and I told her not to worry I would get her other ones. It got late so I told her to go to bed, but she started crying saying she was hungry. I let her eat a bowl of cereal, and then again told her to go to bed after she picked up her poster. She turned around and told me she had a terrible day, didn't have fun with me and that she only got to get one thing. Wow, they sure know how to hurt ya. I made her stand with her nose against the wall. Later I put her in my lap and told her how much it hurt me when she said that. I told her I knew why she said it because she didn't want to go to bed and stop coloring her poster. She said yes, and that she was sorry, but she kept crying. She got up again 15 minutes later to wipe her nose and was still crying. I asked her why and she poured out her heart to me saying that the poster she was coloring reminded her of the horse her Gram had and that she had to sell. She loved that horse. She just started crying and crying. She kept saying she misses Coacoa, wants to see her and is afraid she will never see her again. I told her that maybe she would, but she went back to bed, still upset. She did finally fall asleep and that was the end to Katey day. It started great, but didn't end the best. I am sorry her poster made her so sad. It made her think of something that still hurts her so bad. I know how much it still hurts her Gram too. They are kindred spirits those 2. Bonded by their love for horses and their heartbreak over one special horse.

Oh Happy Day!!!!!

I got internet today!!!!! I am so happy! Now I can blog, play on Facebook and look things up all from the comfort of my recliner. I can watch my Netflix! Oh I am so excited!!!!!!!! It doesn't take much for me to be appreciative. The little things mean so much when you don't have a lot! I am so thankful!

What I did on 2/18/2011

Well, my oldest, Kyle didn't have school today. He goes to a local Vo-tech school for his Sr. year. He is taking collision repair and will graduate in 3 months. I am so proud of him and can not wait to see him get his diploma. A really close friend of his, Andrew, stayed over last night and they decided to apply for a chicken catching job. My bestest, Stac, called and wanted to go grocery shopping so I decided to do everything in one long trip. I went and picked up my friend and her little boy and off we all headed. We stopped at a very small market and picked up a few groceries there and then went to look for the chicken catching place. The boys hadn't gotten very good directions so I called and had her give me the directions. We were able to find it without too much trouble. The boys said the applications were very short and to the point so it didn't take too long. The gentleman talked to them right there about what they would . I think from the way it sounds they are a little reluctant to hire the boys. Andrew has never worked, my son has had 2 jobs, one through the school and one helping a former girlfriend and her family care for horses. They are concerned that Kyle is still in school. They did say that they hire all summer long and that perhaps if they don't hire them now they will hire them later. I felt good about that. I would like Kyle to get a job now before he graduates so he has one right out of school. It is very hard in this area to find jobs so it may take awhile and they will have to take whatever they can find. After we filled out the apps we decided to go and get something to eat. I LOVE Chinese food, and so does Stac and her little guy, so that is where we went. When it was time to pay the bill and leave I gave the waitress my debit card. She came back to the table and told me it was declined. I could not believe it! I KNEW there was money there. I had used it yesterday with no problem. The 2 oldest kids' birthdays are at the end of February and the very beginning of March. We always have 1 party and usually at a small skating rink. I had booked the party and paid for it with the same card over the phone. My husband and I by no means have money laying around, so I knew how much money should be on that card and the thought that the money was gone made my heart sink. There was more than enough to cover the bill. I asked her if she was sure that it had been declined and she told me she ran it twice. I was sooooo embarrassed and very anxious. She stated then that I could pay with cash. Now if i had cash don't you think I would have paid with cash! I tried to call the bank and the phone just rang and rang. I had to ask my friend to pay my bill. I knew she would, but still hated to ask. I knew there was money on that card. We left there and drove to a local branch of the bank and checked the balance. Sure enough there was money on the card. What the heck! This had happened one other time at this same restaurant. I withdrew some money just to make sure the card was working and we decided to go to the thrift store. My friend and I LOVE to shop at thrift stores and yard sales. Other peoples junk is the best! LOL! I was able to buy a few things. While there I called my husband Bill. He was finally done working and we needed him to meet us because we were out of room for groceries in my Jeep Wrangler and needed his pick up truck because us girls were not done shopping just yet. We went to aldi's and shopped some more. After loading everything and everyone up we stopped, got a soda (all that shopping makes you thirsty) and headed back to my house. My oldest daughter was watching her oldest boy and my youngest girl. Stac hung at my house for awhile and then I drove her and her boys home. My son's friend Andrew needed a ride into McDonald's to see his girlfriend so that gave me a great opportunity to come in and use the Internet. I will be so happy when I get Internet at my house. I can't wait. After all of this running around I am glad to just sit and relax awhile. Wonder how busy tomorrow will be? I have a baby shower and a birthday party to attend. I still have a present to buy! The great thing was spring is starting to arrive. I love how warm weather and sunshine makes you feel. After the long cold winter, being able to open the windows on the Jeep and have all of that fresh air hitting you in the face is just great. I don't like the mud, but that just means the snow is melting. I hope the warm days stick around for awhile. :) I hope everyone had a great day today!

Where is the respect?

Well, once again the Reichard family found themselves at the local McDonald's. I am using the Internet and the kids did their homework, ate a snack and are playing. We have a usual spot we sit. It is by the only outlet in the place. It just so happens to be in the play room. When we arrived today, which was around 4pm, there were a bunch of teenagers sitting in our usual spot and the whole play room was full so we sat in the main lobby. No biggy, we waited until it cleared out and our spot was free and we moved. When we walked into the play area, the place was filthy! Food everywhere, the teenagers had a food fight with all kinds of Gummi worms and bears and salt and anything else they could get their hands on. They had left half eaten food all over every table, all over the floor and even on the seats. We sat in our regular spot and looked at the table across from us and clearly drawn on the table was an offensive image of men's private parts. How rude and disrespectful. Where do these teenagers get off thinking it is ok to do this where there are little kids? I of course have my almost 19 year old son with me and I looked at him and asked him if he knew how disrespectful what they had done was. He said of course. I then asked him if he knew what I would do to him if I ever found out he had done something similar to this. He smiled and nodded and said, I probably wouldn't be alive. Why were these kids allowed to do this? Where was the management? They should have been asked to leave. I think that we as parents need to teach our kids to have more respect for others. Those kids should have been given a mop, broom, cloth and spray and told to clean up the mess they had made. What do you think?

Busy day

Sorta had a busy day today. The girls went to church and when they came home we went for lunch at a local favorite restraunt. It is called Ard's and it is a working farm that is also a store and a great place to eat. They have this challenge hamburger that is 5 lbs plus a side of fries. The 5 of us go in, order the burger which costs $20 and we all eat. We are stuffed and usually bring some home. After eating we took the girls to McDonald's to play and use the internet. We then went out to Bill's Mom's to pay some money back we had to borrow to keep us from getting evicted. That is a story for another day. Then we stopped and picked up our neice and nephews. Tomorrow being Valentine's day and GirlScouts they are doing Valentines together.
I didn't sleep well last night. We used the new Kero heater for the first time last night and I was roasting. I am so use to being cold when I sleep that I could not get to sleep. That is ok, because my sleeping habits have been way out of wack for months now. I go to bed anywhere from 3 am to 8am and sleep until 1 or 3 in the afternoon. Now I hope I can go to bed at a better time and get up while the sun is still shining. We shall see.

The beginning

Well, a very close friend of mine whose blog can be found here http://redneckriver.blogspot.com/2010/11/howdy-yall.html?spref=fb recommended that I start a blog. I have been told by lots and lots of people I should write a book. I have never thought I was that interesting, but I thought perhaps what my family and I have gone through will help others. Plus this will be a place I can say what I want about anything. You will see things about my kids, my husband, my friends, my life, my crafts and anything else I can think of. I can not promise I will write every day or even every week, but I will do my best.
Let me start by telling you a little about myself. I am 37, I have been married for 19 years and have 3 children. A boy age 18 a girl age 12 and another girl age 7. My husband is 39 and works in a meat packing facility. We have been very lucky that when a lot of other people have lost their jobs in our area he has been steadily employed. I am disabled and do not work. However I use to work. I was a Home Health Aide for more than 11 years for the same company. I LOVED my job and I miss it greatly. More on that subject another day. Right now I am sitting at my local McDonald's because I do not have Internet at home. I like to come here so the kids can play and I can use their Internet. The best of both worlds. I love Facebook and try to get on their every day. I love to do crafts and do many kinds. I especially like crocheting though and I have very recently been working on some pinwheel sweaters. I found the pattern on one of my favorite websites, Crochetville. If you like to crochet this is the place to go. There are many great people there and so many wonderful things to look at and to make. I also really like to sew, but haven't done that in a few months. I make jewelry too. Beaded and chainmail. I have a favorite store I like to visit to get my beads. The name of the store is Ellacinder's and it is in Lewisburg, Pa. The owner Cindy and her daughter Lauren are 2 of the nicest people I have ever met. I think i will stop here for now. I seem to just be rambling, but this is the first time I have ever blogged. If anyone reads this tell me what kind of crafts you like to do. What are some of your hobbies? Do you have any favorite websites? Do you have a favorite store to shop for your supplies?